Arsenio Martinez Campos

Arsenio Martinez Campos (14 December 1831-23 September 1900) was Prime Minister of Spain from 7 March to 9 December 1879, interrupting Antonio Canovas del Castillo's terms. He was a member of the Conservative Party of Spain.

Biography
Arsenio Martinez Campos was born in Segovia, Spain in 1831, and he joined the Spanish Army's general staff in 1852. He distinguished himself at 16 actions during the Tetuan War in Morocco in 1860, and he also took part in an 1861 expedition to Mexico and in the Ten Years' War in Cuba in 1868, using bayonet charges to defeat the Cubans, despite suffering heavy losses. However, Martinez Campos was perceived as being too soft to win due to the high Spanish body count, and he was replaced by the ruthless Blas Villate. In 1872, he returned to Spain, where he backed a coup against the government and fought against the Carlist with little success before leading the Valencian army against independent forces in Alicante and Cartagena. In 1874, Marshal Francisco Serrano gave Martinez Campos command of a division, fighting against the Carlists in the Basque Country, and he tried to proclaim King Alfonso XII of Spain. On 29 December 1874, he led a coup in Sagunto to restore the throne to Alfonso, and he went on to serve as Captain General of Catalonia and Navarre. In 1876, he was sent to serve as Captain-General of Spanish Cuba, and he granted more autonomy to Cuba, as well as paving the way for slavery to be abolished. In 1879, he presided over a conservative government as Antonio Canovas del Castillo's puppet, but his belief in racial equality led to his expulsion from the Conservative Party of Spain. He decided to join the Liberal Party of Spain, and he served as Minister of War under Praxedes Mateo Sagasta and founded the General Military Academy. In 1894, as commander-in-chief of the African army, he negotiated a new peace with the Moroccan government, and, in 1895, he briefly fought in the Cuban War of Independence. Despite a few defeats at Matanzas, he refused to use ethnic cleansing against the rebels, and he was replaced by Valeriano Weyler. He served as President of the Supreme War and Navy Council until his death in 1900.